Manually Registering Functions

The skillbridge will only export functions that are documented in the running Virtuoso instance. If you need functions that are not documented there but still exist, you can register them manually. There are two methods for this either with the prefix method which is a clean way to categorize and define the function. Since some skill function definitions do not follow the default camel case naming conventions or have not prefix, we also provide a way to specify the function name.

Prefix register method

Let’s take a look at the following example.

@ws.register
def dbCheck(d_cellview) -> None:
    """
    A docstring
    """

This will register the function dbCheck which takes a single argument d_cellview and returns nil. You may also write the function name in snake case: db_check.

Note

You must provide a return type annotation. Use None if you don’t know the type or are unsure. You also must provide a doc string which describes what the function actually does.

There are three ways to specify arguments.

1. Positional, required arguments by naming the python parameter accordingly

2. Positional, optional arguments by adding the type annotation Optional

3. Keyword arguments by assigning a name to the variable

The next example shows all three uses

from typing import Optional

@ws.register
def myFunction(required, optional: Optional, keyword="someName") -> "someReturnValue":
    """
    A nice doc string, that explains the function
    """

You can use the function like this:

>>> ws.my.function
<remote function 'myFunction'>
myFunction(
    required
    [ optional ]
    [ ?someName keyword ]
=> someReturnValue
A nice doc string, that explains the function

Warning

Obviously this only registers the function, but it does not define it in Skill. If you actually call myFunction you will get the error:

undefined function myFunction

Direct method

In this example the skill method load is directly called.

from skillbrige import Workspace
ws = Workspace()
ws['load']('exmapleFile.il')

Let us say you have a SKILL function called myFunction_def. You can call it in python like this. Pay attention this function must be defined exist in your Virtuoso instance.

from skillbrige import Workspace
ws = Workspace()
ws['myFunction_def'](...)

Note

Keep in mind that the functions you get this way behave exactly like the functions from the prefix method, including keyword arguments.